Are you unsure whether you're experiencing low self-esteem?

Don't worry this is commonplace! Many people confuse self-esteem with feelings of sadness or perhaps just the ongoing pressures of life. It's not until you truly understand and identify self-esteem that you would consider is at as having either a positive or negative impact in your life!

You see, having high self-esteem is important as it will mean you're more confident in yourself and your abilities. It can mean the difference in having the courage to approach members of the opposite sex with confidence or perhaps to convince a new employer you're the right candidate for the job.

Before learning how to gain self-esteem though it is first important to identify whether self-esteem is having a negative impact in your life. If you can identify having low self-esteem then you can actively work towards improving it. That's why I want to discuss a few of the most common signs of having low self-esteem.

Self-Deprecation

A common and more obvious sign of a person having low self-esteem is constant self-deprecation. This is basically where a person doesn't speak highly of their-selves and will in fact often have a very negative opinion of their-selves. I bit like when you say to someone "stop beating yourself up", a person who devalues their self and speaks about their-selves in a negative manner a lot of time probably have low self-esteem.

Self-Imagery

Another common example that leads directly on from self-deprecation is a person who routinely expresses an unhappiness about their appearance and how they look compared with others. Someone experiencing low self-esteem will be a lot more sensitive to the opinions of others regarding their appearance and even how they "think" others are judging them based on their appearance.

Perfectionism

Another tell-tale sign of having low self-esteem although not as obvious and as easy to pinpoint as the others is a person who strives for perfection in whatever task they engage in. These high expectations can often derive from wanting to do better than others due to feeling inferior. This is a vicious cycle as having such high expectations can often mean failure which only worsens the person's sense of self-worth which will invariably affect their self-esteem.

Self-Comparison

You've probably noticed a recurring theme in all signs of having low self-esteem which is a person comparing there-selves against others! This is a common symptom of having low self-esteem, a person with low self-esteem will be quick to pinpoint their flaws and weaknesses in comparison to others whilst quickly over-looking and neglecting their strengths in comparison with others.

If you're trying to identify whether you have low or high self-esteem, then first ask yourself; "how confident am I". Then focus on the four key areas discussed in this article and assess which areas you can resonate with. As you identify the signs of self-esteem you can better determine the best course of action for improving your self-esteem and gaining the confidence you deserve.